Weekend box office to host battle of the remakes

As VH1 would say: I love the ‘80s. Or rather, Hollywood does, rolling out three remakes of films that were popular 30-odd years ago. Even with RoboCop, About Last Night, and Endless Love stacking the bill, however, general consensus has last weekend’s champion, The Lego Movie, once again taking first place.

About Last Night will likely land just behind Lego, with Sony predicting returns somewhere in the mid-20 millions. It’s a romance flick opening on Valentine’s Day, and one that boasts a marquee actor who has already proven his box-office worth with films like Think Like a Man and the recent hit Ride Along, Kevin Hart. Both of which factors have led some pundits to believe Sony’s expectations are a little low. Think Like A Man, for example, opened to $33.6 million in 2012. Chances are good About Last Night will meet, if not exceed, that bar.

RoboCop opened a few days ahead of the weekend this past Wednesday night. Sony had predicted a debut of roughly $35 million for the Wednesday-Monday spread, but RoboCop got off to a rough start on Wednesday night, raking in just $2.8 million. Granted, much of the country was battling poor weather conditions, but underwhelming reviews and diehard RoboCop fan skepticism (the new color of the hero’s suit and the soft PG-13 rating are two points of contention) do not bode well for a considerable uptick through the weekend. It’s more likely RoboCop will earn between $20 and $25 million.

The final 1980s remake, Endless Love, will surely benefit from opening on Hallmark’s National Date Night, or Valentine’s Day, today. Similar titles The Vow and Safe Haven fared pretty well over this same weekend the past two years, and their demographic, teenage girls, will likely help Love earn solid figures. Even given the film’s lack of headlining stars (The Vow had Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum going for it) or recognizable name brand (Safe Haven was a Nicholas Sparks adaptation), eye-candy Alex Pettyfer and a tried-and-true star-crossed lovers storyline should nonetheless help Endless Love gross around $10 million.

Given Winter’s Tale cast – Colin Farrell, Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly – period setting, and heavily romantic plot, one would think the novel adaptation would be primed to easily beat Endless Love, if not the weekend’s other two new releases. Unfortunately, those stars about which Jessica Brown Findlay spoke so dreamily within the film have not aligned for its likely success. Director-writer-producer Akiva Goldsman’s labor of love has been almost universally panned, and there are many who believe the movie’s marketing has done a poor job explaining just what exactly the time-traveling tale is about. Returns should tally out to less than $10 million, which means Winter’s Tale will probably not crack the long weekend’s Top 5. Monuments Men should earn the No. 5 spot, dropping some 40 percent or so from last weekend to rake in $12 or $13 million.

Happy Valentine's Day!

 

'G.I. Joe: Retaliation' trades release dates for a happy ending this Easter

In Wednesday night screenings, G.I. Joe: Retaliation tallied up $2.2 million, a good sign for the sequel, which is expected to earn in the $40-45 million range over the weekend. This Sunday is Easter, and many kids have either this week or the next one off, meaning that the PG-13 picture will be able to pick up weekday audiences. That's one reason Paramount decided to move the release forward to
Thursday instead of Friday.

In another respect, the release moved way back. Originally, the follow-up to the 2009 G.I. Joe: Rise of COBRA was scheduled for a summer 2012 release. Then, as the star power of Channing Tatum rose, the studio scrambled to rework a plot that had Tatum dying at the end, which could have also could have spelled the end for the franchise's star power.

As people emerge from the churches on Good Friday or Holy Saturday, they could head right to the theatres for Temptation, which seems to be the preferred abbreviation for Tyler Perry's Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor. The slightly darker turn for Perry includes a supporting performance by Kim
Kardashian. While that seemed like a bad idea back when she announced her divorce after a very short marriage, things change fast in the celebrity landscape. Pregnant and attached to new boyfriend Kanye West, her presence will likely add interest to the picture, which will have the strongest attendance among women and African-Americans.

Temptation will likely perform on par with The Host, with each earning around $20 million. Twilight author Stephenie Meyer
produced the sci-fi romance starring Saoirse Ronan, which is based on her book. However,  Twilight fans don't go gaga for just anything, and these are different characters and different romances. More modest returns are expected for this feature.

As the box office heats up again, there are also a couple of offerings for arthouse lovers. The documentary Room 237 offers hilarious and mind-boggling theories about Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. Ryan Gosling stars in the ambitious work from director Derek Cianfrance (Blue Valentine), The Place Beyond the Pines. Although the movie has been receiving mixed reviews, its ambition may still impress many viewers, even if the result doesn't quite reach those imagined heights.

Check out the creepy trailer for 'Side Effects,' Steven Soderbergh's latest

Steven Soderbergh has directed six feature films in four years. He's also credited with a documentary during that time, served as a second unit director for The Hunger Games, and has a smattering of producer, executive producer, and "Very Special Thanks" credits on his IMDB list. No wonder the man has announced that he plans to retire. He still has at least one project that hasn't been released, Side Effects, starring Rooney Mara and Channing Tatum, Soderbergh's new muse. Tatum appeared in this year's  Magic Mike and Haywire. The trailer for Side Effects just hit YouTube, and man does it look creepy...and cryptic.

 

Mara plays a woman whose anxiety and fraught relationship with Tatum are helped by a new drug. Then someone gets murdered, and it's implied that she may have done the deed while under the influence of the drug, unbeknownst to her. Jude Law plays a shady drug executive, and Catherine Zeta-Jones appears to be a more skeptical peer of Law. Limitless recently explored the good (and bad) side effects of a drug, and was something of a surprise success. Side Effects certainly taps into a cultural anxiety about being altered by medication. Any number of drugs taken by millions of Americans could loosely describe the one taken by Mara, so I think Soderbergh has chosen an apt subject. But will people turn out?

The performance of Soderbergh's movies at the box office boggles me. It's easy to see why his Ocean's Eleven series was such a success, for example, but I was surprised by the performance of this year's Haywire and Magic Mike. Haywire was one of the best action movies I've seen in a long time, with interesting, realistic combat sequences and a cool female heroine. But then Magic Mike turned out to be the bigger success, pulled along by females in the Heartland--although they may have been more gaga for Dear John and The Vow star Channing Tatum than Soderbergh's auteur status as a director. At least if you're Soderbergh, a lukewarm success can be chased by a hit just months later, instead of dealing with years-long lags before your next big work.

Side Effects will open on February 8, 2013, through Open Road Films.

Channing Tatum to star in 'White House Down'

I still remember the awe of seeing the aliens in Independence Day blow up the White House from their ship. That's the kind of iconic image that stays with viewers. Sony's betting big on its fast-track project White House Down, which promises more money shots of rarely seen sections of the President's residence. Channing Tatum is now attached to star in the project, playing a Secret Service agent and single dad who must save the President. Tatum has a surprisingly diverse portfolio for a rising star. He's alternated between playing the heartthrob (The Vow, Dear John), testosterone-fueled roles (G.I. Joe, The Eagle, Haywire) and now comedy (21 Jump Street). He's the kind of rising star that can bring in audiences from different demographics.

James Vanderbilt, who scripted Sony's summer tentpole The Amazing Spider-Man (coming out in July), has been pulled away from working on the sequel in order to move this project forward. The project is being described as "Die Hard in the White House," with a paramilitary group playing the part of the villain. Even the mud on the collar of the Secret Service, thanks to their evening activities in Colombia, haven't dampened Sony's enthusiasm for this project. The studio just dated it for a Nov 1, 2013, release, the beginning of the end-of-the-year movie season.

There's another twist to White House Down--it has a competing project, Olympus Has Fallen. When I last reported on the two dueling White House films, Olympus had the edge, with a reported start date in June. However, with a star lined up, a release date, and a summer production start date, it now seems like Sony's project has the edge. Forget the action between the Secret Service and a paramilitary group, it seems like in Hollywood getting there first is half the battle.